I once met a man. Full of himself, he didn’t have time for me. He kept looking over my head for someone more important, his cool politeness crafted to keep me on the lower rung of the ladder he was climbing.
I walked away disappointed for he had been recommended by someone I trust.
I met the man again a year later, only he was a different sort of man than before.
I saw him across the room and knew immediately his arrogance had been replaced by brokenness. In his eyes glowed a yearning for Jesus instead of a preoccupation with self.
Later we talked. He was kind. Focused. Real. Interested in what I had to say.
And humble.
So very humble.
I heard through the grapevine he’d gone through “moral failure.”
I don’t mean to make light of sin in what I’m about to say. Many were hurt by his actions. The enemy had a heyday with his fall.
But maybe sometimes sin forces us to see ourselves for what we are: Broken, hungry people who need mercy.
Fallen people craving grace.
Maybe sin helps us know Jesus in greater fullness. As we hunger and thirst for a righteousness we finally realize we cannot attain on our own, we fall on our face like the Psalmist and beg the Christ to cleanse us with hyssop and make us fully clean.
Maybe sin forces us to humble ourselves before the Almighty, grasping at last how little we deserve anything good, and yet how freely and fully He gives all goodness to us.
I’m sad this man hurt others and himself. I’m not glad he did what he did.
He used to be a big-wig in his puffed up peacock world. He’s now a man with little obvious power.
But I like him–and I didn’t before.
In him I now see greatness.
Humility replaces pride.
Love replaces self-promotion.
Gentleness replaces disdain.
Vulnerability–Velveteen Rabbit Realness–replaces the facade.
This man has faced his broken self and placed the smeared, smudged pieces into the Lord’s hands.
He didn’t tell me this, but I know it.
I know because though he is still splintered and bleeding, the transformation wrought by the Master has begun. And I see a new shine in the man.
A shine that is Jesus.
